Monday, June 17, 2013

Recently, some of the players on NEO Scavenger's forums posted a request for advice on how to start making games. I've talked quite a bit about bootstrapping indie game development here, but a lot of my focus has been on the business aspects. I do mention tools and techniques here and there, but they've been spread across two years of posts, and are often directed at a somewhat more experienced crowd.

Today, then, I thought I might take a bit of time to walk newcomers through the field. There's a ton of info out there. And sometimes, that can be just as bad as there being no info out there. How does one know they're following advice or tutorials that will lead anywhere? What if one follows a tutorial, only to find that it dead-ends somewhere down the line?

As it turns out, there's both good and bad news here. The bad news is that false-starts are common. Even experienced devs are lured into dead-ends. Technology is an ever-shifting field, and games even more so. It's easy to commit time and resources to something that won't pan out, and that's par for the course.

The good news is that there's usually something to be gained from such failures. This is particularly the case for beginners, where every step is contributing to new skills and perspectives, if not the end product. When one is a complete beginner, there's nowhere to go but up.

Where to Go for Info

As already mentioned, there are billions of places to get info on developing games. Google searching can be a bit daunting:

Better make some coffee...

So how does one know where to start?

I considered compiling a list of indie development resources, but then I remembered that someone has already gone through the trouble. In fact, many people have:

Pixel Prospector maintains a gigantic list of indie resources. It's probably one of the most comprehensive lists on indie game development tools, techniques, and wisdom, collected from around the web. http://www.pixelprospector.com/indie-resources/

Gamasutra is a major source of all things gaming, with a focus more on the developers than consumers. There is a vast catalog of knowledge here, including news, tutorials, GDC videos, jobs, and op-ed. http://www.gamasutra.com/

StackExchange is probably one of the most valuable places to know about when trying to find the answer to a technical question. The questions and answers are usually of high quality and value, owed in part to their curation and voting mechanisms. Many of my epic quests for esoteric programming or technical knowledge end here. http://stackexchange.com/

Some folks like sharing what they've learned, which might make this a good time to mention an important lesson I've learned: see if someone's already done the work for you. The internet is a pretty amazing thing, giving us near-instant access to a growing proportion of all human knowledge. When it comes to game development, a lot of the problems (most, in fact) are ones that have been tackled before. It's worth doing a quick search first, just in case someone's already saved you the trouble.

Which Tools to Use

Choosing a platform, engine, tools, or project management method is like choosing a religion: fanatics are everywhere, and will try to sell you on their favorite. But in the end, just about any of them will teach you something, even if it's that religion isn't for you.

Again, I'm going to harp on Pixel Prospector. One of the first links they list covers a vast list of tools and engines. Read what people say about them. And more importantly, look up what people are building with them. There's no greater proof of a tool's validity than the thing it was used to create.

What did I learn on? Well, this:

Computers can do ANYTHING

I also learned by copying BASIC code from Antic magazine into an Atari 800, and watching the results go. Also, trying to emulate Leisure Suit Larry as a text app in my junior high computer class, using BASIC on an Apple IIe. And taking a "programming for engineering" course at univeristy. And buying 20lb "Learn 2 Program" books from Barnes & Noble, and copying their C-code into engines like Allegro. And writing Flash apps for my web development employer. And following Microsoft's XNA banner for a while.

The point of my telling you this isn't to say that I've had a lot of training. Most of the above was better described as "flailing," or maybe just "failing." And even the things that did succeed became obsolete with time. Technology comes and goes fast, as do platforms.

The point is to learn something in the process. All of the above taught me bits about how computer programs work, how information is organized, how logic controls data in an application, and how bitmaps work. Sometimes those lessons were learned while modding Dark Reign. Other times, I wrote code that put pixels on the screen in a starfield, and I moved them about in sloppy for-loops.

What's my tool of choice? I'm a fan of Flash's Actionscript, and flixel. Actionscript is a c-style, object-oriented (OO) language, which is a good type of language to learn. Many game-related technologies are c-style, OO languages:

C/C++

C#

Objective C

Flash

Unreal/UnrealScript

Java

HTML5/Javascript

PHP

Perl

Haxe/OpenFL (a.k.a. NME)

Learning one is usually a good head-start in any of the others.

Flixel is a game engine built on Flash actionscript, and is a good balance of existing systems and free-reign to do what I want.

Would I build my next game in Flash/Flixel? Probably not. Flash is starting to limit me in some ways, and I'm looking towards Haxe and HaxeFlixel as a next step. It takes a lot of what I like about Flash and Flixel, adds some powerful abilities to it, and frees it from the clutches of Adobe (and the Apple-Adobe-Android wars).

That said, building something in Flash/Flixel now should put one in a good position to transition to HaxeFlixel later. They're similar enough that learning one teaches most of the other.

Hello, World

And once you've chosen your tools of choice, what then? Should you write an epic design doc, plan out all the facets of your game, and start building?

I'd focus on "Hello, World." If you can get code to compile and display that phrase on the screen, there's nothing stopping you from writing "Health = 100," or "You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door."

Or simply print some ascii art, and let the arrow keys move it around the page. Or maybe write some text about how much candy you have. Or how your dwarves feel.

The point here is that once you've got something displaying on the screen, the rest is just tweaking and watching the results. NEO Scavenger was originally a sprite of a man, and clicking a button moved that man closer to a dot. Each time he moved, his sleepiness went up. If you clicked another button, he slept, and his sleepiness went down. I kid you not.

Monday, June 3, 2013

I apologize for the previous gap in updates. Rochelle and I were at the beach with my family for a few weeks, and I made it a point not to do any more work-related stuff than was necessary.

I could get used to these.

Unsurprisingly, work still crept in, here and there. I cut down my email and web administration duties to once every other day, but it still took a few hours each time. There isn't really anyone to cover for me in these cases, so I'm on the hook for order issues, spambot surge mitigation, and customer inquiries. One alternative would be to "go dark" for several weeks, but that seems like an irresponsible thing to do when running a business, particularly where customer support is a component.

As such, vacation wasn't a complete break from the stress. Nothing critical arose during the break, thankfully, but it was still something that was in the back of my head. Work check-in was never more than a day or two away, and more significantly, a giant to-do list awaited me when I returned.

I think that while previous vacations have taught me that vacations are necessary and healthy, this vacation added the caveat that vacations can be diminished by obligation. Basically, there would either have to be no obligations to fulfill, or someone to fill those obligations for me in order to completely relax, stress-free.

The former requires that NEO Scavenger be finished and support-free. Admittedly, that goal is pretty far off, if even possible. More than likely, there will be a long tail of support and attention required, no matter how bulletproof I make the game. Platforms evolve, partnerships are formed, and other changes in the business landscape mean that a product is never truly dead (see Homeworld, Wasteland, etc.)

The latter requires that I expand the team, which is a daunting goal in itself. Questions of trust, availability, motivation, and compensation are each topics that require their own, significant, due diligence. I've long been reluctant to let anyone into the sandbox, and these are some of the big reasons why.

It's time to "start finishing."

As such, my current goal is to "level up" NEO Scavenger, and make it newsworthy again. A little more work, and I can at least consider the demo "done," making it ripe for sharing with portal sites like Kongregate and NewGrounds. That should hopefully make new players aware of the game, and if the beta looks like a worthwhile-enough upgrade, drive new sales as well.

The increased awareness would help with the Greenlight campaign, which is a bid for more PR and sales in itself. There are some contests I'm considering, as well as some "taste makers" I'd like to finally contact, now that NEO Scavenger is maturing.

And if things go smoothly, I can see either finishing the home stretch personally (albeit slowly), or maybe investing a little money to speed the remainder of the content work.

It's a scary moment, one of those crossroads where I endlessly find excuses to avoid taking the next step, but it's time to get into high gear. Whatever happens, I'm already happy with the outcome so far, and I only have more to gain from moving forward.

Plus, peace and rest waits for me over that next hill, and I never thought that would be such an enticing goal.